Comment by graemep

Its economy is a lot smaller than that of the US, and smaller than China in PPP terms, and is growing much slower than either.

Do you have import and export number that adjusts for transhipments? What is the economic impact of the trade?

Even the UK which was an EU member until recently, has a free trade deal with the EU, and is right next to the EU geographically trades more with the rest of the world - and that is including a lot of transhipment trade (look up "Rotterdam Effect"). You can find the same for lots of EU countries.